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A SERMON 



< > N T H i: OCCASION O Tr T H K 



ASSASSINATION w PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 



DELIVERED IN THE 



'RESBYTERIAN Clfnu'll. I ' R I ENDS V I LI.F 



m. 



►nbbHtb Hlorning, ^pril 23b, I860. 



BY THE PASTOR. 

Rev. S. C. R.\ L I> R [ DG E. 



CINCINNATI, O: 
mum Press ■•< JOS. B. BOTD, 25 Wbsi Fourth Street. 
1865. 



y 



THE 


MARTYR PRINCE. 


ON 

ASSASSIN 

PKESBY' 
E 

Stkab 


A SERMON 

THE OCCASION O E THE 

ATION of PRESIDENT LINCOLN, 

DELIVERED IN" TIIK 

rERIAN CHURCH, FRIENDSVILLE. 

Sabbath Iteming, $pril '23b, I860. 


BY TIIK PASTOR. 

ev. S. ('. BALDKIDGE. 

< « 


CINCINNATI, : 
Press or JOS. B. BOYD, 26 West Fourth Stbbet. 
1865. 



E> 



vi< 



CORR ESPOND ENC E, 



Friendsville. April 2-t, 186f>. 



Rev. S. C. Baldridge: — 



Dear Sir: We, the undersigned, would respectfully request you to furnish a 
copy of the sermon delivered by you. at the Friendsville Church, on Sabbath, April 
23rd, in memory of the late President Lincoln, (which was preached in accordance 
with a resolution requesting it, passed at a meeting of citizens, held at Friendsville, 
on Wednesday evening, April 10th,) for publication. Hoping thereby to subserve 
the cause of the Union and the maintenance of correct principles. 

Respectfully yours, in the cause of truth. 



Wm. R. Wilkinson. 
Jamks Foster. 
Jonathan Sithkrland 
Aaron B. Hallock. 
A. A. Gould. 
Eli as W alters. 
Georoe McHefkey. 
William Hillis. 
Franklin Danforth. 
James Gumm. 
David Dickson. 
Samuel Cabbaugh. 
Joshua Woods. ■ 
N. R. Grout. 



John F. Youngken. 

Horace Blood. 

Levi Couch. 

James P. McNair. 

William Naylor. 

Thos. Wilkinson. 

Franklin Andrews. 
John C Gilkison. 
B. F. Taylor. 
William Pixley. 
Lewis W. White. 

W. P. KlXGSIiURY. 

Adams. 



Friendsville, Wabash Co., Ills.. June 4, 1805. 

Hon. W. R. Wilkinson, A. B. Hallock, Esq., Ret. W. P. Kingsbobt, 

Joshua Woods, David Dickson, N. R. Grout, Elias Walters. &c. 

Gentlemen: — The sermon, written out from brief notes, at my earliest convenience, 
is hereby placed at your disposal. One thought persuades me to submit my own judg- 
ment in this matter to yours. Your names represent every religious denomination 
in this region. And if, when these struggles that now engross as arc passed, this 
sermon will serve to explain the sentiments and the position of the great body of 
the christian public during the time of trial, it will be of service in making up the 
history of this Country. 

Fours verv sincerelv. 



S. C. I!.\L1>RIDGE. 



THE MARTYR PRINCE 



Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ?- 
I ! Samuel, iii, 38. 



How terrible is Death! Whether it comes to remove the ancient 
and honorable, or strikes down the strong man in his pride and 
hope, or settles upon the chidren of your households like a frost out 
of the untimely skies on the lovely blossoms of Spring, it always 
appals us. Within the little circle bereaved it awakens a Hood of 
tenderness, and hushes the clamor and uproar of this world. Some- 
times, doubtless, the most valuable thoughts, the profoundest convic- 
tions, the most subduing views of life and death, of time and 
eternity — the vanity of one and the solemnity of the other — are 
gathered amidst the seclusion of a home desolated for us by death. 
But yet beyond the stilled precincts the stir of life may be as busy 
as ever. But here is a death that has affected a nation, and stopped 
the breathless chase of business, and filled all hearts, from our 
crowded sea-ports, on through towns, and villages, and hamlets, to 
the solitary cabins in the frontier, with one thrill of anguish. What 
mean these mourning badges ; these drooping banners in the sanc- 
tuary: the "passing bells" overall the land; the minute guns in the 
Army and Navy; these saddened groups in the streets; this vast 
and tearful throng? 

Ye know that a "Prince and a great man has fallen this day in 
Israel. ' 

Taking this lamentation of David over the assassination of Abner 



O THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

for ray text, I will be governed by the line of thought it suggests in 
the meditations that are to occupy our thoughts for this hour of 
sacred service. 

The reasons of the bitterness of David's grief were two, one public 
and the other personal. One was because Abner was a "Prince"' 
in Israel, and the other because he was "a great man.'' One was 
the public loss sustained, and the other was the worth and virtues 
of his murdered friend. 

Both these elements are blended in the lamentations of the nation 
over the death of the President. We mourn him as a Prince. His 
death touches every generous nature with pity. It is affecting to see 
that the highest honors of the nation, the mead of universal confi- 
dence, the applause of his countrymen, and all the grandeur of 
earthly glory and exaltation could not screen him from the common 
doom. But this sentiment is too fine to accotfnt for this wide-spread 
mourning. 

The death in office of the Chief Executive is a national calamity, 
because it tends to throw our public affairs into confusion, and relax 
the supremacy of law and order. It is a gratifying evidence, to be 
sure, of the inherent life and vigor of our institutions, that the 
government is found sufficient for the emergenc}^, and that it moves 
harmoniously on without a jar or collision. The world, it may be, 
will gather new confidence in the stability of the Republic. But wo 
know that the fell design in the murder of the President in the 
midst of our national troubles, was to bring all disorders and an- 
archy into our national affairs, to disorganize the government in the 
presence of armed and bloody Treason, to weaken, confuse, and 
destroy it. The bullet that murdered him was aimed at our national 
life. This is what has aroused us, this has made the death of the 
President a thing to thrill the people with horror and indignation. 

But this Prince was no hereditary Ruler. He could claim no de- 
scent of royal blood. He ruled alone by the free votes of the nation. 
He was elevated to the Presidency, as all his predecessors had been,, 
because of the popular sympathy with the principles which he repre- 
sented. What first called him to power was a long-growing reaction 
in the nation against the insolent encroachments and usurpations of 
the Slave Power in the Government. When the barbarous spirit of 
Slavery had developed its inherent tendencies in Treason, Secession. 
and War, there was engrafted upon this original sentiment a bound- 
less enthusiasm for the preservation of the Union. Both these sen- 
timents have grown in intensity and influence with the progress of 
the strife. Every battle-field where your fathers, brothers, sons 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 7 

have fallen by the hand of traitors, has enlisted your sympathies for 
your bleeding country anew, and revived the solemn oath that our 
murdered heroes must not perish in vain. And as we have seen the 
spirit of Slavery displayed on the stage of this war before the eyes 
of the world, in the barbarities and atrocities perpetrated in its be- 
half, the tone of inconceivable hate that has actuated the South, the 
starving and freezing, and inhuman abuses of unarmed prisoners in 
their hands, the butchery in cold blood of Federal soldiers after t hex- 
had surrendered, there has grown in the national heart a wide-spread 
and sterner abhorrence and execration of the system. 

Mr. Lincoln stood in the popular affection as the great protector of 
these two principles — The Union and Universal Liberty. All loyal 
eyes were fixed on him as the foremast man in this struggle to main- 
tain them against treason and secession, and as we see him fall by 
the hand of the public enemies, all the pent-up sympathies of the 
nation for these noble principles, are poured forth in lamentations 
over him. Never was mortal so mourned by the noblest of hie race. 
O, martyred Prince! O, loved and honored Chief! tallen in this 
struggle for human liberty and the existence of a free Eepublic, thou 
hast the mead of thy ransomed country's tears. 

But in addition to these views of the public loss, there enters into 
the national grief, to a very unusual extent, a feeling of esteem and 
veneration for the man — "a great man has fallen." 

I know that I shall gratify the mournful feelings of the hour, by 
lingei'ing for a time over the qualities of his personal character. 

The first feature of his greatness to which 3 r our attention is asked, 
was the power and comprehension of his mind. One of the very first 
conditions of true greatness in a ruler is a mind of compass, grasp, 
and firmness. Nothing can atone for the lack of this. He may pos- 
sess the literary elegance of Lamartine, or the military genius and 
the craft of Marlborough, in vain. No training in a familiarity with 
time-honored precedents, no intimacy with the usual details of state- 
craft, no tact in the management of party machineiy, is adequate to 
secure a broad and noble confidence among men at a stormy and 
revolutionary epoch. There must be conspicuous power and com- 
prenhension of mind. 

When our late President took the Executive chair, he was an un- 
tried man. He was of that plain and homely mold that the world is 
slow to appreeiate. But gradually the confidence of the Nation be- 
gan to rest on him. All who would see, soon could see, that he fully 
understood the terrible crisis, and viewed all the endangered interests 
of the country in a broad, practical, and common -sense light. They 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 



discovered him to be a man who eschewed fine-spun theories and 
speculations, and kept fast hold of certain old-fashioned principles 
that everybody could understand. He had the eye to pierce through 
the maze and confusion of ou** affairs, and see what was to be done, 
and the steadiness of purpose/to enter boldly on its accomplishment 
by the most practical means. Some of his measures were in advance 
of his times, but history has already set her favorable verdict on the 
more important of them, and his countrymen, who once doubted, 
now applaud their wisdom and statesmanship. 

2nd. His independence of mind. He weighed all things in the scale 
of his own judgment. Apparently the most credulous, docile, and 
pliable of men, yet when once he had satisfied his mind on a ques- 
tion, and matured his opinions, he was unhesitating and inflexible,, 
He was to be shaken from the ripe convictions of his judgment, by 
no threats nor mockery of his country's foes, by no lack of sympa- 
thy on the part of his friends. This gave firmness to the Govern- 
ment. All parties knew what they could depend upon. There 
might be many counselors but there was but one chief. There was 
but one policy, one unflinching, earnest, honest purpose in the gov- 
ernment during all his administration, because there was one brave, 
unflinching, earnest, honest man leading its counsels. 

3d. Another element was the serenity of his mind. In all his 
State Papers we see nothing that approaches to passion, fright, or 
confusion. No statesman of our age has proved himself so entirely 
above the influence of party trammels and jealousies. He appeared 
to possess, by the happy constitution of his mind, the power of ab- 
stracting himself from the obscurities, the prejudices and the passions 
of the present, and to behold all questions on which he was called to 
decide, in the serene lights of sound reason and the experience of ages. 
Nothing was more important to the nation in our Chief Executive in 
the emergency, than the possession of this noble characteristic. His 
elevation to office occurred at the stormiest period of his country's his- 
tory; when party frenzy was fiercest, and old ideas were changing, 
and old plans and policies, and precedents were utterly inadequate, 
and the spirit of Treason was exulting in the ruin of the Republic, 
and every lover of his country was dumb with horror and uncer- 
tainty. What tongue can tell the adorable mercy of Providence in 
raising up for us, then, a "spirit that could look on the tempest and 
be never shaken," who could move through the scene undismayed, 
unaffected by the clamors of political passions, endeavoring to do 
justice to all, and to love mercy. He possessed what the elder Pitt 
so commended in a Prince, and what our Washington was remarka- 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 9 

ble for — the power of looking at present questions with the same de- 
liberation with which ordinary mortals look baol tpon the questions 
that perplexed former generations, and thai have long ago been 
solved by time and Providence. 

4th. Another element of his greatness was his Benevolence. II 
was kind, genial, gentle, and unselfish. Trained in the hardy 
school of poverty, he had learned that a mutual dependence, a rad- 
ical unity of rights, interests, and cares really subsists among man- 
kind. No exaltation, no opposition or abuse, ever changed or 
checked the constant flow of his kindly feelings. The tide of his 
genial humor never ebbed. He looked on mankind with a brother's 
eye. In the city of Springfield, where he was best known, he was 
without a personal enemy. The blessing of the poor and of him 
that was ready to perish came upon him. This goodness of heart is 
conspicuous in him as a ruler. The whole policy of his administra- 
tion towards the rebellion has been one of as great clemency as was 
at all compatible with that firmness and energy which were ne- 
cessary to break the military power, which was the only power of the 
conspiracy. The sword has been wreathed about with the olive 
branch of Peace. His messages, his amnesty proclamations, and all 
his words to the South, were as a father's arms stretched out to the 
violent and injurious prodigals. At the very time of his murder, his 
magnanimous mind was busy maturing a scheme of re-construction, 
embracing the most liberal terms, and full of nothing but mercy to 
the insurgent States. Well might the rebel leaders say that "the 
death of Mr. Lincoln, just now, was the heaviest blow the South had 
yet suffered." Verily, they have killed the man of mercy, with their 
own suicidal hand, in the very hour when they needed most his vast 
and unimpassioned mind and boundless magnanimity- Indeed, may 
we not see in this one of the providential reasons for the permission 
of this tragedy. We are come to a stupendous epoch. The question 
now is, shall treason he considered only as an innocent experiment 
with the stability of the government, or as the highest erime known 
among men. Shall all future generations be taught that to conspiri 
to destroy our liberties is to pluck down death upon the heads of the 
conspirators as the enemies of mankind? That the laws will cer- 
tainly be executed? This is to be decided now for all the future. 
Mr. Lincoln, with the inborn goodness of his nature, was but poorly 
qualified to act as judge, and dispense the awful awards pf justice 
and law upon the perjured and blood-stained leaders in treason. 
And from this he has been relieved, but in a manner that will ensure 
the ends of righteousness. There has a great change passed over 



10 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

the spirit of the Nation. The current of a credulous sj^mpathy was 
beginning to flow towards the ruined Traitors. Since they had not 
succeeded in destroying the Government, we were falling into the 
absurdity of pitying them for their want of success and their mis- 
fortunes. This murder, perpetrated in their behalf, and by their in- 
spiration, has violently checked the tide. The mingled pity and 
horror that now reigns in every heart will give way to a firm con- 
viction, that compassion for the leading conspirators is out of place, 
that the cockatrice of treason cannot be charmed, that it must not 
be nourished, that the public safety requires that the laws be rigor- 
• usly executed. 

But the crowning glory of his life, and of this age, is the part he was 
permitted to take in the destruction of the system of human slavery 
in this land. The boundless magnanimit}^ of his nature, his benevo- 
lence, his inborn honest}', has ever arrayed him against it, at heart. 
But as long as we could hope for peace in the Government with it, 
he stood faithfully by all the compromises by which slavery was fos- 
tered and cherished. Even after the slaveholders had plunged the 
country into this war. we find him still solemnly respecting the old 
repudiated pledges. Rebel property was guarded, rights respected, 
slaves returned, and every evidence given of the pacific spirit that 
reigned in the nation ; and it was only the implacable hostility and 
violence of the South that compelled the Government, at last, to gird 
itself for the strife, and accept the stern issue forced upon it, to sup- 
press the Rebellion, or perish. Then came the real " tug of war," — 
every lawful means to weaken the hands of the rebellion was re- 
sorted to. Among these was the Emancipation Proclamation, by 
which the workers, " the hewers of wood, and drawers of water " 
for the Confederacy — the producing class of the South — were made 
wholly unreliable, and transformed into men who loved and prayed 
for the Union cause as they loved and prayed for their liberty. It 
was adopted as a military measure, and was effective in disorganizing 
this main element of the strength of the rebels. But its military 
aspect is lost sight of in its moral grandeur. That act, by which he 
was made the instrument of restoring the rights of human beings 
to ftiur million* of our fellow creatures, — the 'last 'slaves in any civilized 
■ui/in,, — who had been sold in the shambles, and driven in the field 
as rattle, will forever make him most illustrious throughout all 
lands. It will enshrine his name in the affections of mankind, hard 
by the glorious names of Howard and Wilberforce, the philanthro- 
pist- and Hampden, and the early heroes in the struggle for human 
liberty. A- fci'me passes, his memory will be more revered; and 



THE MARTYR I'Ul.VK. 11 

when the bitterness of party prejudices Is assuaged., this nation 
will learn, throughout all its borders, to admire the righteousness, the 
true political sagacity, and historic glory of the great Emancipator. 

Another element of his greatness was the remarkable swiplioity and 
integrity of his character. Ee was of humble origin; and the mold- 
ing years Of his life were spent on the frontier. The hardy virtues, 
the simplicity of mind and manners, that he had learned in the 
pioneer cabins, never deserted him. They survived all the expan 
siou of his mind by after study, his experience of courts and travel, 
and the giddy exaltation that awaited him. He was the same man, 
true to nature, without a taint of affectation, with all the untutored 
ease and Ireedom of his native frontiers, in each of the varied scenes 
of his life. Never was there in the executive chair so perfect a rep- 
resentation of the people, so true a type of the hardy, honest, toiling, 
sunburnt millions of his native West. Had we known the momen- 
tous future, perhaps all would have preferred to have chosen some of 
the more elegant and courtly of our public men to have represented 
us as our chief Executive before the gazing nations. It is certainly a 
wondrous Providence that, just at this juncture, when Republican 
institutions were about to be put to a fearful test, and the blaze of 
this gigantic strife was to attract the eyes of the world, and the vital 
powers of free government were to be illustrated, such a man as this 
should have been elevated to the gaze of mankind. The nations 
saw, as they looked to these Western shores, a civil leader without 
the polished elegance of the courtier, a man of true genial republican 
simplicity, with a certain rugged strength and manliness about him, 
and an open, honest way of treating of all things, the very farthest 
possible removed from the old forms of state-craft and diplomacy. 
What a picture was this, my countr}~men, of the real character of this 
protestant nation, and of our free institutions. Nothing like it was 
ever exhibited, on the stage of history, so noble, so true to nature, 
without we may turn our eyes back to that grand age when honest, 
liberty-loving, godly Oliver Cromwell was lifted up by Providence to 
show the down-trodden nations of Europe what mettle the common 
people of England were of. E^ery honest man. every truly virtuous 
man in this land, even though he live in a cabin and wear homespun, 
and toil for his daily bread, had a brother in simplicity of character, 
honesty of purpose, broad common sense, and every element of 
native nobleness in our foully murdered President. O, weep, fellow- 
citizens, weep ; let your tears fall fast : hush not these si»;hs of bitter 
grief, for he is worthy of your lamentations. 

Another element of his greatness was his religious convictions. 



12 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

This, after all, is the basis of that enduring affection and admiration 
in which his memory will ever be held among mankind. His moral 
greatness is his true greatness. We are disposed to refer many of the 
most striking and valuable features of his character to the existence 
of true religion in his soul. His cheerfulness, the open sincerity of 
his nature, the habitual solemnity of his thoughts, his energy, 
coupled with moderation, his unselfish and boundless benevolence, 
his mercy and justice as a ruler, all seem very like the usual fruits of 
irraee in the soil of a great mind. It is to be bitterly regretted that 
he did not make a public profession of that faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, which he often confessed in private to his more intimate 
friends. But we will dwell with gratitude, for a moment, upon the 
intimations we have of his piety : ^S * £r '"' ' '• :; 

1st. His voluntary statement to Kev. Dr. William Adams, of New 
York, of his love for Jesus, as his Saviour, and that he had made a 
long delayed surrender of himself to God, for time and eternity, on 
the bloody field of Gettysburg. 

2d. His well-known custom of spending the early hours of each 
day in the reading of the Hoty Scriptures. 

3d. The devout spirit of his proclamations. There is in them an 
undertone of reverence for God, of penitence in the confession of our 
national sins, of dread of the divine judgments, of utter dependence 
on God for all safe counsels, and all success in the public defence, that 
is new in the Government, and is in striking harmony with these 
days of rebuke. Their spirit is something better, unspeakably better, 
than the bold and vague Deism that has characterized these state- 
papers since the days of the elder Adams. They have the sweet 
odo* in them of humble and positive religion. No one can read his 
last Inaugural Address, and his proclamations appointing days of 
national thanksgiving, or prayer, without feeling that the late Presi- 
dent was a Bible reader, and was perfectly anxious that God — the 
God of nations, the helper of all tluit fear Him — should be diligently 
sought unto. He often and earnestly said to clergymen and pious 
friends, " Pray for me;" and upon one of them once asking him: 

Mr. Lincoln, do you ever pray for yourself? " he simply answered : 
'•How should I do without prayer?" He evidently regarded the 
national calamities as the chastening of God for the national sins, and 
so endeavored to walk reverently with solemn awe and sincerity of 
heart, as became the momentous times. His chief anxiety was to 
know what it was right and fitting that he should do, that the im- 
pending judgments might be averted. He constantly urged that 
national penitence, justice, and righteousness alone, could remove the 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 13 

devouring sword from our land. "Whether he had tasted the saving 
power of renewing grace, of course we cannot positively decide ; but 
this we know, that he exhibited in his opinions, spirit, and life, some 
of the noblest traits of Christianity. This profound religious element 
in his character gave him his moral greatness. This was the rich 
soil out of which his illustrious virtues grew. 

This prince and great man has fallen ! How sadly, beyond all words 
to express, we come over this lamentation of David at the assassina- 
tion of Abner, and feel that it is true of us this day. Alas, that the 
good, and the virtuous, and the exalted patriot cannot live in immor- 
tal vigor among us. How this recalls the language of the Psalmist — 
himself a prince— " Verily, every man at his best state is altogether 
vanity." — Psalm xxxix, 5. Nothing can purchase for him a re- 
prieve that he shall not see death. 

Man can attain to great heights of exaltation among his fellow 
men. As society is constituted, the guardianship of the interests of 
the many is committed to the few. In the natural working of things 
the public confidence gathers around the man who exhibits ability, 
skill, and faithfulness to the interests confided to him. He is lifted 
from one station of power and influence to another. In a monarchy 
a man is honored in proportion as he subserves the policy of the 
king and devotes himself to the interests of the priviledged classes — 
as was Richelieu and Cardinal Woolsey. But in a Republic, he is 
exalted just in the proportion that he is true to the welfare of the all- 
controlling masses. Republics are not ungrateful. Sometimes the 
sleepless jealousy for the character of all entrusted with authority, 
that this form of government begets, may judge too harshly; and 
sometimes the shallow demagogue may rise to a momentary power, 
but in time all is corrected. Among us, "the memory of the wicked 
rots,' - but sooner or later the faithful servant is rewarded. Honors, 
trusts, affections, cluster around him. But all this can give him no 
immunity from mortal ills. He may reach the magnificent elevation 
of the Presidency of this free Republic — an elevation all the more 
sublime because conferred by the confidence of the nation in his wis- 
dom and integrity, and the sympathy of the nation with the noblest 
principles that can swell the human heart; but all in vain — "Man at 
his best state is altogether vanity." The decay of nature, the ravages of 
disease, or, it may be, the cowardly bullet or dagger of the assassin, 
may arrest him in the midst of his career and push him off the stage 
where he is enacting glorious deeds into the silence and dust of 
death. 

But these are not the thoughts that oppress us this morning. A 



14 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

consideration of the frailty and vanity of this mortal life, though it 
has formed the staple of many a proud elegiac strain, our departed 
givatness is too vague to arrest or satisfy our distracted thoughts. 
This foul, harbaric crime over which we are mourning, suggests to 
the patriot heart far more urgent and practical lessons. Let us pon- 
der some of these. It will he but an idle service whatever thoughts 
and feelings may have been awakened, unless we learn and feel some, 
at least, of the sad and stirring teachings of God's providence. 

The first and most important for us, as a Christian people, to learn, 
is the necessity, in order to the maintenance of the public virtue and 
security, of imbuing the nation with the principles of scriptural 
morality. 

" A Prince has fallen. " But, how? By the bullet of an assassin. 
But who is the assassin? The son of an eminent English tragedian, 
and trained for the stage. He. is a legitimate product of the theatre, 
the drinking saloon, and the gambling hell. His views of life, cour- 
age, honor, and all moral questions were formed in those dens of vice 
and infamy. They are such as pass current in those circles, and form 
the staple of the sentiments and opinions of that whole class of our 
citizens. It needs but a dash of hair-brained daring, or the inspira- 
tion of passion to transform them in a moment into monsters of 
crime. And so it must ever be. Eliminate the Bible with its lofty 
standard of morals, its inner checks, pure sentiments, its gentle and 
solemn calls to virtue, and its revelation of the future, and how long 
would it be before the inbred corruption of the human heart would 
burst all barriers and lay waste our heritage of liberty and peace? 
How long would it be before we should return from the zenith of our 
civilization to the horrid cruelties of barbaric ages? Here we have a 
class in the midst of the light and quickening of this age, but to 
whom the Bible was unknown, and, lo! what a moral ruin, — what 
lonely depths of unfathomable corruption and foulest sin ! And what 
more is needed to make the spirit of this assassin and his horrid con- 
clave, the spirit of this whole nation, than that the same moral views, 
the same tastes, and the same lawless 'profligacy prevail? 0, let the 
same opinions, the same scenes of dissipation and infamy, the same 
worse than heathenish ignorance of the heavenly standard of truth 
and righteousness out of which this aAvful wretch sprang, be uni- 
versal, and all our virtue, law, and tranquility would perish in one 
stormy night of crimes, of devouring corruptions, of secret cruel 
plots, and bold and bloody barbarities. What agency will you array 
to face this foe of our peace and liberty? Whither will you look for 
help ? What can inspire far and wide over the land the knowledge, 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 15 

love, and practice of righteousness ? Will the tragic sentimentalisms 
of the stage do it? Booth was an actor. Can the accomplishments 
of cultivated society, and all the embellishments of literature, art, 
it 11 cl learning? Alas, alas! Behold the dissolute morals of the 
Augustan age — the pontificate of " Leo, the magnificent," and the 
polished reign of the Stuarts. He knows but little of the human 
heart and its history, who dreams of stopping the tides of its cor- 
ruptions by such vanities. They rather give a method to the mad- 
ness, sharpen the capacity for mischief, and lend the dangerous 
charm of wit and refinement to the vilest profligacy. 

What society needs, is some means that can powerfully cowtiieract 
these sentiments, can rebuke and discourage theM passions and destroy 
the taste for such iniquities. And all this the "Gospel of Peace "pro- 
poses to do. It comes like our better angel, to explain our duties to 
one another in all the relations of life, and our duties to God, to en- 
join upon us the noblest motives, and the most heavenly affections, 
and enforces obedience by the most moving and solemn considera- 
tions. It fixes upon the conscience an ineradicable conviction of our 
accountability to God for all our opinions and actions. Under its 
influence men begin to grow careful, sincere, honest, sober-minded, 
as knowing that for all they will be brought into judgment. Vice 
loses its charm over the mind convinced that its mad pleasures are 
bought at the terrible hazard of final ruin. An invincible check is 
put upon the evil passions of the heart in their secret and hidden 
springs in the soul. The vh'tues that adorn and bless society grow 
up spontaneously. This holy power of the Gospel is conspicuously 
exemplified in the lives and characters of the truly pious ; but still 
it exerts an unspeakable influence in behalf of righteousness over 
the masses who may not be savingly transformed by it. You may 
see this illustrated in history. What is it makes the immense differ- 
ence between heathen and christian civilization ? To come nearer : 
What has given us our free institutions, and that virtue and intelli- 
gence, and mental and moral activity in which alone they can exist? 
Was it not our Protestant religion, in its elements, and that alone, 
which lifted our ancestors in the islands and forests of North Europe 
oat of barbarism, and exalted them through ages, and refined them 
in many a heroic struggle and grand awakening, until, at last, in the 
fullness of time, it breathed the lofty thought of a free .Republic into 
their kindling minds, and nerved their arms to achieve it ? And 
think you that any other than the Mother of Liberty can nourish her 
glorious child? What then, hearers, is our duty? To spread this 
holy word of life far and wide. To bring its heavenly precepts, its 



16 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

instructions in righteousness, and its spirit of love and purity to bear 
on all our fellow-citizenship. No class must, be overlooked . No tangled 
valley, nor lonely wilderness, nor hive of vice can be left neglected. 
The elements of barbarism, and anarchy, and social ruin lurk in 
every corner of our land that is unilluminated and unwarmed by the 
genial rays of the Gospel. 

Let every patriot, then, every lover of his country, every one who 
would see her expanding liberty, her growing virtue, intelligence, and 
prosperity, give the weight of his influence and the best energies of 
his life to exalt the Bible in this land. O, how miserably do they 
mistake who withdraw their aid and sympathy from the church on 
political grounds. As though this Republic could exist without the 
Gospel and God's sole and only missionary society, whose work it is to 
carry it with its temporal and eternal blessings to men throughout 
all our borders. These will have nothing to do in the promotion of 
religion, and in the work of making this a righteous nation — a people 
beloved of the Lord — because, forsooth, some of their political opin- 
ions are condemned by the moral convictions of the Christian public 
For this, they are willing that the work of evangelizing this land 
should stop, the cause of religion should be given up, the churches 
closed, the restraints of the Bible removed, the tides of vice flow 
unchecked, and the light and glory of our civilization be extin- 
guished. O. hearers ! is there one of you into whose soul this mad- 
ness has entered? 

The seeds of political atheism have been sown broadcast in this 
country by the violence of party strife, and are growing fearfully . 
I can see one of these deadly shoots, in this widespread cry, that 
religion and politics are to be kept distinct. Be not deceived, breth- 
ren, in this plausible sentiment. It means noio, not that church and 
State must be separated in this Government, and there be no civil 
church establisment as in England, and no ecclesiastical despotism in 
public affairs, as in Austria, but only this, that the divine counsels to 
us as a nation are not to be explained, applied, respected, or obeyed. If, 
by any means, a moral question is thrown into the political arena, 
and parties are arrayed in hostility over it, no difference how clear 
the divine word may be respecting it, the sacred oracles must be 
iumb and God's blessed and awful voice hushed, as though the Bible 
were not the sole expounder of true liberty, and did not explain, with 
a supreme and infinite authority, our duties in eveiw possible relation 
of life. 

Another noxious shoot of this political atheism, you may see in the 
bold avowal of an honored political leader of a former generation, 



THE MARTYR PRIM K 17 

that •' legislators, as such, are under no obligation to know what the 
will of God is," (Hon. Kiehard M. Johnson, of Ivy..) or, in the later 
and sadder declaration still, by ( '(in»-ivss, and that in the midst of 
the divines interpositions for our national deliverance from treason, 
" That it was not expedient to so change the preamble to the Consti- 
tution as to recognize God, as our God as a nation, and the authority 
of the Christian religion." (See action of Congress on the report of 
Hon. L. Trumbull, of 111., from the Com. to whom were referred the 
petitions of various religious bodies respecting this.) 

Near akin to this, is the sentiment often heard on the street, and 
at the fireside, that in adopting political opinions, all reference to 
their moral aspects must be laid aside. The question whether they 
are right, in harmony with the eternal principles of justice, is not to 
be agitated. Our opinions are to be framed and embraced alone on 
the grounds of policy, expediency, and the prospect of success. Are 
you a christian, hearer; and have you adopted such a sentiment as 
this? Do you not perceive in this the devil's deep laid plot under 
cover of the frenzy of party prejudices, to banish the Bible as the 
standard of truth and righteousness, and besot the moral sense of the 
nation ? 

All this political atheism — this denial of God and his authority — 
bodes no good to our country. With this spirit universal, our true 
prosperity is impossible. There is a solemn message from God, to 
which we will do well to take heed : Isaiah, lx, 12 — "For the nation 
and kingdom that will not swve thee shall perish. Yea, those nations 
shall be utterly wmUZfL." 

What a work is before you, christian patriots, in exalting the wor A 
of God as the infallible standard by which to test all opinions ami 
measures. -Not yet is its sovereign authority recognized by our citi- 
zens, and the necessity of our hearkening to its divine counsels, in 
order to our national peace, virtue, and safety. It remains that you 
plead boldly and ever, that the private character of the people, the 
public laws, and the national policy be moulded by the precepts and 
the spirit of the Holy Scriptures. This awful war should teach us 
nothing more impressingly than that nothing can be politically safe 
that is morally icroncf. Sin — national sin — however excused, apolo- 
gized for, or openly defended, is an element of national ruin, an ,J 
sooner or later will pluck down the judgments of God. '• Righteous- 
ness exalteth a nation." We have trusted for security to the plots of 
politicians, the intrigues of the wily demagogue, the counsels in 
which the "Lord of all the Earth" was despised, and a guilty wealth 
and splendor wrung from the unrequited toil and the degradation of 
3 



18 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

millions of slaves, and we have seen the result. Shall we not begin 
to hear the admonitions of God as the admonitions of a friend? "I 
am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit. O, that thou 
hadst hearkened to my commandments, then had thy peace been as 
a river, and thy righteousness," &c. — Isa., xlii, 17, 18. 

The secret of our liberty is our Protestant religion, and that 
preached far and wide over all the land, with "the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven," alone can make and keep us virtuous, can save 
us from public corruption, from deadly conspiracies, from treason and 
sedition, and breathe peace, and love, and righteousness over the 
renovated Republic. 

I have dwelt so long upon this momentous theme, that there is lit- 
tle time for anything farther. But we must not close without con- 
sidering briefly two other most urgent lessons of this event. 

2d. The necessity for cultivating a general spirit of forbearance 
and moderation in political conflicts. We are naturally impatient 
of all differences of opinion. With some, the tendency is to become 
intolerant, rash, and violent. One of the gravest difficulties in the 
practical workings of our republican institutions is that they seem 
to cherish and stimulate this partizan opposition. Eve^ election 
seems to let loose anew the political rivalries, the pent-up animosi- 
ties, the clash and collision of heated prejudices. This almost neces- 
sarily begets the low and foul spirit of demagogism. The new- 
born liberty, implied in the choice of our rulers, is often almost lost 
sight of, and an election becomes a mere unscrupulous scramble, by 
fair or unfair means, to secure office and power. No fraud is too base, 
no calumny too bitter, no slander too false and vile, to be eagerly 
perpetrated, if it will but compass the end. In the heat of conflict, 
but little heed is given to the melancholy fact, that the demon of 
variance is being evoked and fostered, who will not always be allayed. 
A spirit of hostility — of bitter, burning rancor — gathers strength 
with each struggle, and the seeds of sedition, anarch}', and ruin grow 
up apace. What, then, alas ! are we to do, who love our free institu- 
tions, and feel that the welfare of mankind is best promoted by their 
spread and perpetuation ? Three things remain to us : 

1 . Let every citizen cherish a steadfast charity towards those who 
differ. This is that spirit of forbearance, kindness, and good will 
which the Gospel enjoins. Let all try to feel that our fellow-coun- 
trymen who may differ from us as to the measures which may best 
secure the national welfare, have the same interest in the security 
and prosperity of the country with ourselves. And moreover, if 
men differ honestly, let them differ. The "right of private judgment" 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. 10 

is too precious to us as freemen, to surrender at any price. We must 
maintain this noble principle and its exercise, with constant and 
jealous care. 

2. Strive to imbue the masses with the fear of God and the love of 
truth and righteousness. Toil with a weariless patriotism to bring 
every citizen to feel the solemn fact that he is accountable to the 
Lord of all, for the opinions he entertains, and the inner feelings he 
cherishes, as well as the conduct of his life; to feel that all is wrong 
and guilty that departs from the upright, the noble, and the honest 
in principle, spirit, or practice ; that a lie and a villainy is ever a lie 
and a villainy, and is so regarded in heaven; that the end does not 
justify the means ; that God beholds the tricks, the frauds, the cal- 
umnies, the frenzied and willful misrepresentations of party zeal, 
with the frown of righteous indignation, and that He will hold the 
perpetrators to a terrible accountability in the judgment of the 
great day. 

3. Let every citizen set it down in his heart, as one of the condi- 
tions of our liberties, that the majority is to rule. Our government 
is gone when this principle is given up. If ever a reverence for the 
evil of the majority comes to sit so loosely upon the popular con- 
science, that it can be easily shaken by appeals to partisan passion 
and prejudice, then the door is thrown wide open for civil disorders, 
conspiracies, violence and anarchy. How shall we settle political 
issues safely, except by submitting them, with a generous confidence, 
to the judgment of the masses having a common interest in public 
affairs. Depend upon it, in this Government, if we refuse the arbit- 
rament of the ballot-box, there is nothing left but the bloody arbit- 
rament of the sword. 

The cordial maintenance and exercise of these principles will reg- 
ulate and control the inherent dangers in our .Republican institutions,, 
arising from the heated political controversies, to which they give 
loose reins and every possible stimulus. Let there be everywhere 
a generous respect for the opinions of others, the fear of God and 
love of righteousness, and a reverence for the will of the majority, 
and then our frequently recurring elections will but arouse a living 
interest in public affairs, promote intelligence among the citizens, 
impart a knowledge of our liberties, foster the profoundest spirit of 
patriotism, and confirm the government in the affections and confi- 
dence of the people, its most invincible rampart. 

3d., The necessity of cherishing a loyal respect for the rulers of the 
land. This is the last lesson from this mournful tragedy to which 
your attention is called. By this is not meant a blind and servile- 



20 THE MARTYR PRINCE. 

admiration of the man. but a generous deference to him in his official 
capacity. There ma} r be a difference of sentiment as to measures, 
but we are to respect the civil ruler as invested with authority to 
maintain law and order, by the providence of God, On this point, 
about which there is such a difference of opinion, I will just rehearse 
the Law of God : Romans, xiii, 1 — "Let every soul be subject unto 
the higher powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers 
that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the 
power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall 
receive to themselves damnation." I Titus, iii, 1 — "Put them in mind 
to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be 
read}' to every good work." Peter, i. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 — "Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether 
it be to the king, as supreme: or unto governors. For so is the will 
of God." 

The spirit of mind we are to cherish towards our civil magistrates 
is implied in the repeated injunction to pray for them: 1 Timothy, 
ii, 1, 2 — "I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, 
intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for kings 
and for all that are in authority." Oh, how different is this to the 
•spirit of fierce and biting obloquy and vituperation in which so 
tnany of you formerly indulged. That same feeling cherished has 
led to this assassination, and will ever, under one pretext or another, 
tend to unhinge the public confidence in the laws, and destroy the 
public tranquility. There is a nrcesxity for your cultivating a loyal 
respect for your rulers. 

But we can linger no longer here. We must leave this sanctuary. 
We must go down to face our country's dangers, to grapple with our 
duties as Christians, and as citizens, to look into the momentous 
future and provide for it. But as we go let us cheer ourselves with 
two reflections: 

1st. God is a God of justice. A cause that is born of fraud and 
treachery, is sought to be established by hate and unheard of bar- 
barities, and that laughs alike at human rights and human woes, can 
urcrr mccccd. Heaven's righteous retributions hang over it, and 
sooner or later will fall. Let us stand by the principles of truth and 
righteousness, and the spirit of our christian civilization, and we 
shall see the Confederacy perish, and the monstrous and deadly 
moral and political heresies out of which it arose. 

2nd. We must not doubt but that God has mercy in store for us. 
Let us look at his wondrous dealings with us. When a nation is to 
be preserved, Providence raises up men equal to the emergency 



THE MARTYR PRINCE. L'l 

whatever that may be. The spirit of the nation rises with the dan- 
gers that menace it. Has this not been the case in this crisis? Does 
not the world wonder at the overwhelming enthusiasm of the Amer- 
ican people for the Republic? Did ever a civil war bring out so 
many patriots, in every arm of the national service, whose names 
will be illustrious for splendid talents and deeds of historic glory? 
When Babylon was to be destroyed, no one was found more compe- 
tent to lead in her defence than the voluptuous Belshazzar. But 
when cruel Phillip invades the Netherlands with his victorious 
armies, lo ! William of Orange appears to rally his handful of patriots 
to the dreadful onset, and amidst the shock of arms and scenes of 
heroic daring, the Dutch Republic rises gloriously. O, fear not, 
hearers, "a Prince and a great man has fallen." hut (Jod who en- 
dowed him so richly with talents and virtues, and gave him to his 
country in her extremity, has not left us, now that he is dead, to 
feehle counsels and broken arms. Look at the crisis, and look at the 
men that Providence has nourished to meet it. and take courage. 
You may know by the spirit of the nation, and the heroes of the 
times, that our mission among the nations of the earth is not yet fin- 
ished. We shall survive these horrors. We shall overcome, and let 
us all fervently pray that we may escape, these dangers, to be a na- 
tion "loving righteousness and hating iniquity " — to be that "happy 
people whose God the Lord is." 



A/s^^rVY ' ^va 




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